Like the US and several countries in Western Europe, Belgium is also trying to evacuate people with Belgian passports and Afghans who assisted their own presence in Afghanistan. The Belgian police, however, are already concerned that among the refugees will be some violent extremists and Taliban supporters.
The below article is from the Dutch daily, De Telegraaf. It refers to a report by the Belgian Flemish newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad. The translation is by Fousesquawk.
Internal e-mail warns police services: "Arriving fundamentalists cannot be ruled out"
(Posted and updated this date (August 23, 2021)
Brussels: There is fear among Belgian police that human smugglers, extremists, recruiters, and violent people will come among the Afghan refugees. According to the Flemish newspaper, Het Nieuwsblad, that comes from an internal email to the police services.
The Belgian Minister for Internal Affairs, Annelies Verlinden, shares the fear according to the newspaper. The police reportedly sent out an urgent email with the message that they want to know what the "coming significant wave of refugees" will bring with them. The email is directed to the services that have supervision over the asylum-seeker centers. In the email, the police services were called upon to report "all facts on religious recruiting, extreme violence, and human smuggling" to a central email address.
According to Het Nieuwsblad, it may be concluded that a portion of the Afghans who are now in asylum centers do not have the best reputation. "Some of these young Afghans behave very violently. There are groups on Tiktok where the content incites violence. It is disturbing that some persons are doing Islamic religious recruiting and claim to be followers of a strict Islam which they dream will be introduced to Belgium."
A police source says that the asylum centers are clearly part of a much greater problem. "The people in asylum centers, they are under control. But the rest who remain here and there or on the street, we know hardly anything about. And that is not reassuring."
Earlier, the Belgian public prosecutor, Frederic Van Leeuw, stated that "the new regime in Afghanistan will not immediately be a new terror threat". According to him, "the Taliban will first focus on the local situation." However, he added, "A threat may emerge within 2 or 3 years." Van Leeuw also indicated that in Belgium, there are possibly some supporters of the new regime already present.
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